Jim Collison knew that the slightly faded bas-relief image of an orange adorning the Mission Revival-style building in his
neighborhood held a tale of the city’s past.

After months of research, he discovered that the building at 454 S. Anaheim Blvd. – now a warehouse for hotel furniture – thrived
as an orange packinghouse until the 1950s.

Eager to save what he considers an architectural jewel, Collison wrote letters urging redevelopment officials to acquire the
property before it meets the fate of other packinghouses. Sitting amid auto body shops and vacant lots, it is the only one
remaining in the city and one of the few in the county that survived fire, the decline of the region’s citrus industry and bulldozers.

“It’s really significant and worth preserving,” said Collison, an eight-year resident of Anaheim’s Historic District and chairman
of the California Square Neighborhood Association. The association addresses issues within the Anaheim Colony Historic
District.

The city this week came one step closer to granting Collison’s wish.
The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday voted in closed session to allow redevelopment officials to purchase the property. The
price is in negotiation.

“This is part of our overall plan for Anaheim Boulevard,” said Elisa Stipkovich, redevelopment director. “But we need to
combine it with other properties to make this property viable for other uses.”

The city has no immediate plans for the building, because more properties would need to be acquired for parking.

“We’d like to see the use change to something commercial or civic – something that would add to the downtown area,”
Stipkovich said.

Some initial ideas include converting the building into a museum, an artists’ loft or a restaurant.

Dubbed the Sunkist Packing House, the building was one of about 13 packinghouses in the city and 50 in the county that
flourished before orange groves gave way to suburban housing tracts. It was built in 1919 by the Anaheim Orange and Lemon
Growers’ Association for $40,000 and lauded as state-of-the-art for its time.

“It’s been a landmark in the city for many years,” said Gail Eastman, a member of the Anaheim Historical Society. “It ties to
the history of the whole region because citrus was such a key factor in the history of Orange County.”

The building is among some 1,100 structures on the city’s historic-structures list. While many packinghouses were made of wood,
this one was made of concrete.

Collison hopes whoever occupies the building will do so for a long time and keep the arched windows, wedge-shaped roof lines
and orange sign that tell a story of a bygone era.

“My ultimate goal is to see the building preserved as much as original as possible – just as a reminder of the city’s past,”
Collison said.

Click Here to Learn About the Packing Process
Click Here To See Some Anaheim Crate Labels
Click Here To See Pictures Of The Old Packing House